Supernatural creatures for dummies
by RayArchangel
Summary: Stiles is just trying to get by in his new school: School for Magic and Supernatural Creatures. It's not made any easier by his own unfortunate powers and trying to help a loner wolf who doesn't want to be helped.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Supernatural creatures for dummies, 3rd edition

extract from Chapter 17: Sparks are people too!

_'True sparks are extremely rare, less than 500 have been documented in the recent history, partly explained by the fact that sparks are incredibly hard to detect. The only way to say that for sure is to perform a variety of powerful spells on a person (see Appendix for the whole list of the Spark Trial Tests): if none of them work, this person is considered a spark. Many people think that the main characteristic of a spark is their ability to channel and amplify other people's magic. But not all of them can do that; as a matter of fact less than half of the officially identified sparks possessed this ability._

_Resistance to all types of magic influence is what often makes them feared and ostracized in the magic community. Imagine an angel that cannot become invisible to a certain person, or a witch that cannot perform even a simplest of spells to protect herself, or a skinwalker who cannot hide behind an assumed identity. As you can see, a spark can be incredibly dangerous if he or she chooses to hunt magical creatures. Some of the most famous and ruthless inquisitors during the infamous Witch Hunts of the Dark Ages were, indeed, sparks. These inquisitors often considered themselves to be blessed by God with the gift of seeing through sorcery, rather than recognize this as a magic ability to withstand other magical spells._

_(editor's notes: actually, debates on this point still continue. No one has yet been able to definitively say whether the abilities of a spark are passive or active in their magical nature)._

_There are a number of myths concerning the possible ways of making sparks vulnerable to spells. Belladonna, wolfsbane, witch's root are often mentioned as possessing this ability. These, however, are only myths: the only time in which a spark is susceptible to the influence of external magic is the time during which he or she is acting as a channel in a ritual or spell. Since these periods are obviously very brief, being exhausting, and since not all sparks are even capable of acting as a channel, sparks are understood to be impervious to magic for all practical purposes._

_All of us grew up hearing stories about the role of sparks in the hunts for supernatural creatures, from witches to skinwalkers to werewolves, and listening to bedtime stories, like "The Little Mermaid and the Evil Spark", "Spark Edwin -the witch murderer". Chances are, you will never knowingly interact with a spark in your whole life, but if you do, try to be understanding and tolerant with them. Remember, sparks are not evil by nature, and introducing them to the magic world early on usually lets them become harmless members of our society. Remember, Sparks are people too!'_

Stiles closed the book and groaned. Well, this kind of explained why no students acted friendly towards him once they realized what he was. He was so excited to start attending the Fourth School for Magic and Supernatural Creatures, hoping that this would be a much better experience than his previous normal high school. No such luck. If anything, it was even worse. Everyone was avoiding him, even the skinwalker, who, in Stiles opinion, looked so scary that he should be repelling any human interaction whatsoever. Then again, the skinwalker was actually pretty popular with the ladies… According to the book, they probably saw something completely different from what Stiles saw. The book he was reading was hardly a great intro to the supernatural world, but that was the only one they let him check out of the library before classes started, and Stiles felt very impatient. He knew absolutely nothing about this new world, and he hated not knowing things.

And now he finds out that apparently everyone in the magic community hated his powers. Adding insult to injury, he still hasn't been able to act as a channel, making him feel even more useless. That's what he left Beacon Hills and his father for, seriously? His father didn't want to let him transfer in the first place, but Dr. Deaton was really good at persuading people.

Stiles has been on the campus for a whole week already, and he made no new friends. Everyone just gave him the cold shoulder. The classes haven't started yet, he couldn't check out any worthwhile books from the library… He was bored and annoyed, and life sucked.

That's when he met Scott.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Supernatural creatures for dummies, 3rd edition_

_extract from Chapter 6: Werewolves: fact and fiction_

_6.2 Packs and Snacks_

_As we explained in section 1 of this chapter, lycanthropy is a purely genetic condition. There are numerous legends in the non-magic community stating that a bite from a werewolf can turn a human into one. The myth was probably created by werewolves who were captured and were facing persecution from human authorities but didn't want to implicate their relatives. They might have come up with a story that some unknown werewolf bit them and turned them, but their own family is fully human. As you can see, human authorities are often very gullible. Lycanthropy-associated genes are recessive, and not completely penetrant. That is, even those with two copies of the gene do not always exhibit werewolf characteristics (for the full list of werewolf characteristics, see section 6.1)._

_Educating a young werewolf to control their shift and consequent violent tendencies is the task for the adults in the werewolf pack. Young wolves left, for whatever reasons, on their own, used to be put down, if no pack claimed them. This barbaric practice, however, was stopped in the US in the late 19th century, with the establishment of werewolf sanctuaries (under the guise of so-called "National Parks", did we mention how gullible humans are?), and later with the decision to admit werewolves into Schools for Magic and Supernatural Creatures, along with other species. This decision was the result of a long legal battle, many parents being uneasy with their children learning and living alongside potentially violent students. This court decision was another step in the long struggle for equal rights for were-creatures, which unfortunately still continues to this day._

_That said, one should always remember not to provoke werewolves, especially before they locate their mate. You might just become a snack for one of them, and werewolf bite remains one of the few magical poisons that has no antidote.'_

Scott used to live in Beacon Hills, same as Stiles. This was the first thing that made them talk to each other, and Scott was the only person so far, who didn't mind the fact that Stiles was a spark.

'Wow, that's cool. What's a spark?' - was Scott's reaction.

Even after Stiles explained the concept to him, he was still fine with it. Stiles : 1; Prejudice : 0! Well, by now he's met enough students that it was actually Prejudice : 48, but who's counting?

Scott was a werewolf. He started attending this school last year, when he reached the equivalent of werewolfy puberty at 15 and found out that he had a tendency to grow fangs and claws every full moon. Apparently, no one was aware of werewolves in Scott's family history, so no one knew that both his parents were carriers for this recessive gene.

It was very rare to find werewolves in this school, or in any magic school for that matter. Werewolves were pack creatures, and didn't like sending their young ones away God knows where. Scott didn't have a pack, so he was admitted to the SMSC. There were only five other werewolves here, brought in by various circumstances, often unfortunate ones. Every wolf would rather stay with their pack, if they had a choice. There were Erica and Boyd, from a pack near Sacramento, whose territory was badly damaged by forest fires several months ago. They had to send the two young betas to school, since no adults could pay enough attention to them. There was Jackson, whose exact story nobody knew for sure. He seemed to be a pretty normal werewolf, but rumor had it that he was almost turned into a kanima last summer and his pack was now too scared to let him stay. Jackson was a douchebag, but Stiles still felt bad for him. What kind of family does that to one of their own members? For now, while they were in school, Scott and Jackson officially belonged to Mr Ennison's pack, the resident alpha wolf, who was also the professor of Shapeshifting studies. Once they were ready to graduate they would have to search for a pack to take them in.

Then there was the fifth student, Derek Hale. His story was the weirdest, in Stiles' opinion. Derek belonged to a large well-established pack in Eastern California, and no one kicked him out of it. His problem and the reason why he was enrolled in SMSC was that he hadn't found his mate yet.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Supernatural creatures for dummies, 3rd edition_

_extract from Chapter 6: Werewolves: fact and fiction_

_6.3 Mates: do you have a chance with a werewolf?_

_'Werewolves are unfortunately incapable of fully controlling themselves left to their own devices. Once a werewolf hits puberty, he or she starts shifting regularly and can become very violent during those times. On their own, werewolves also cannot control their emotions very well, and are prone to shifting and attacking others when angry or scared. Having a pack helps a lot to control these problems, but it is ultimately essential that the wolf has a strong connection to another sentient being, a so-called mate._

_Most of the time mates are also were-creatures, but an occasional human or witch in this role is not that unusual. Contrary to popular belief (that ends in many a broken heart), mates are not chosen by the werewolf in question, but are rather selected in a seemingly random pattern by a so-far unidentified agent. When the shifts start happening, a location spell is performed by a local magic practitioner to find out who that person is. Luckily, the location spell always works if performed correctly, there are no recorded instances of failure. Nobody yet understands the rules by which mates are selected. The age difference between the mated pair is usually no more than 7 years, and the distance between them at the time of the spell execution is usually no more than 50 miles, though there are exceptions even to these rules. Everything else is completely unpredictable, including gender, personality, appearance or socioeconomic status. Not that something like this matters, because werewolves unavoidably feel a bond with their mates, and aggressively pursue them as romantic partners. Most of the time they succeed in attracting their mate, though there are quite a few tragic stories of unrequited love (which is especially sad because werewolves are incapable of having romantic interest in anyone other than their mate). Anchoring does not require a relationship or even geographic proximity. As long as one's mate is alive, the werewolf is grounded and can control their shift and aggression._

_So, boys and girls, a bit of practical advice: no matter how hot that werewolf in your class is (and as we all know, they are unfortunately always hot!), they will never love you unless you are lucky enough to be their mate. Chances of that, though, are very-very low, so don't waste your time, and give that cute vampire in your class a chance!' _

* * *

Derek was 18 years old. And he still hadn't found his bond mate. Seems like he was the first werewolf in recorded history with this problem, and there he was, in SMSC, because that was the only place in California that could contain an unmated 18-year-old werewolf of Derek's size under some semblance of control. What this meant for Derek is drinking specially prepared potions to calm his wolf, wearing a collar and handcuffs covered in runes and being chained down in the school's dungeon for several days every full moon cycle. In other words, it sucked. Derek had almost no friends, because everybody was too scared of him. The guy got angry rather easily, and when he did, he wolfed out and became super dangerous.

'How is it even possible, that Derek can't locate his mate? Maybe she is dead?' - Stiles asked Scott. They were sitting outside, skipping 'History of Magic and Supernatural Creatures during the Cold War' lecture. That class was boooring.

'I don't know, it must be something really bad. Probably really powerful blood magic or something. Werewolf mate-locating spells are some of the strongest in existence' - Scott sounded rather proud of this fact, like he was personally involved in creating them -'And his mate can't be dead, Derek would also be dead by now if that were true. Maybe it is a dark witch or something, a really powerful one.' That's all he learned from Scott so far, and it only made Stiles more curious. It was purely academic interest, and had nothing to do with the fact that the werewolf was hot. Damn werewolves.

Next time he saw Derek in one of his elective classes, Stiles tried to act as nonchalant as possible and sat next to him. Derek was sitting on his own, as always.

'Hey, my name's Stiles. What's yours?' - Stiles decided to pretend he was not a creeper and didn't know anything about the other student.

'It's Derek'

The silence that followed was oppressing.

'Soooo, why are you taking Shapeshifting studies?'

'I am a werewolf. You? You don't feel like a shapeshifter'

'Well, my best friend here is a werewolf too. And there are no classes for me, since my special skill is pretty much doing nothing. I am a spark. Please, don't run away,'

Derek just shrugged in response,

'At least you can channel magic from other people'

'You would think so, right? Aaaand you'd be wrong. I keep practicing with Dr Deaton, I tried and tried, and I just can't do it! I feel so useless! Everyone else can do something, all I can do, apparently, is see the skinwalker's real face! Which is not pretty, by the way.' - it was, somehow, easy to talk to Derek about this. It felt like he wouldn't judge or be mean about it.

'Maybe you should work for the law enforcement?' - Derek now kind of looked like he might be smiling. Maybe. - 'What if that skinwalker commits a crime and needs to be identified in his true form, or an angel goes rogue, and no one can find him, except you.'

'Yeah, what are the chances of an angel going rogue? They are all goody-two-shoes, every single one of them. Didn't our history professor say they haven't had any problems with the law-enforcement for the past 25 centuries, since Lucifer? And all he did was run away from Heaven and start a stupid anarchist organization.'

By the end of the lecture, Stiles felt like he might have made a new friend.

Through Derek, Stiles met Erica and Boyd, who were pretty cool, if intimidating on first sight. In his Theoretical Spellwork class he was introduced to the awesomeness that was Lydia Martin. She was a genius witch, appreciated Stiles' suggestions on spell design, and didn't make (too much) fun of him for his inability to actually perform magic.

Overall, things were looking up. Until they didn't.


End file.
